Just like our PBR Holden Commodore caliper we manufactured from scratch. These Ford Falcon AU Series 2 Calipers were our first…and they almost broke us! In fact, the calipers did actually break in the first round of samples!
The caliper that broke?
Written by Cameron Parker
Ford Falcon AU Series 2 Front Calipers
As you would be well aware of, there are new aftermarket calipers, and then there’s new aftermarket calipers. You need to be sure of how these calipers were manufactured. Were they reverse engineered – left to a manufacturer who may not understand the fundamentals of caliper design and tolerances? or drawn from original PBR drawings – adhering with original specifications? We always beat the drum of Remanufactured Calipers over aftermarket new, as discussed in this article. You just can’t beat the quality of the original caliper, and we proved it in trying to manufacture PBR’s AU Series 2 caliper.
How hard is it to copy?
Hard! That broken caliper you see there is months of work. Shattering really. Our in-house engineer spent hours studying the original PBR drawings and consulting with experts in this field. Following all the specifications and tolerances. And when came to fatigue testing. It failed! Where to from here? Well, it was difficult to know. Just get to this stage saw many drawing revisions and sample castings, which isn’t a cheap exercise. The caliper you see broken, survived only 70,000 cycles at 1450psi – an equivalent to 120,000 kms on the repetition test rig. The OE AU series 2 caliper we were benchmarking against lasted 150,000 cycles! Which is impressive given the fact, this caliper was off an old AU Falcon that had potentially done 300,000kms. Picturing a Taxi in my mind.
What went wrong?
We had everything exactly to PBR’s specifications. We tested, measured and assembled the samples. And they looked good! So what went wrong. What became apparent is PBR knew how to make a very good, strong and durable caliper. I couldn’t stop imagining the sample OE caliper came from a Taxi which had already done a lap of the clock, and still outlasted the brand new “exact replica”. Technically it actually never failed. After many more hours of fault finding, there was a what seemed like an unlikely cause but clear difference between the OE and our replica. The way the claw on OE sample was not “finish machined” on the inside face of the claw. Ours was…
The resolution
We informed our manufacturer of what we believed was causing the premature failure. We had new samples made and sent for fatigue testing. With everything crossed, we waited for the results. It was successful! They run through 210,000 cycles, the equivalent to 300,0000kms at 1450psi. We were happy with the results and so sent the other samples through Burst Testing. This tests at 5,076psi for 10secs. Then onto a Salt Spray test for 24-72hrs to test durability of all the components. It wasn’t until everything had passed testing to an OE standard that we gave a green light for full production.
PW31063 & PW31064
As proud as first-time parents, we’re very pleased to release our first new calipers drawn/engineered by us, quality controlled by us and available to you with trust that these are as close as you can get to the OE caliper.
In Summary
This almost broke us! As literal as the first samples. We came into this very confident in our process. Start with PBR drawings, follow the specifications, use only high quality materials and utilise our European suppliers caliper manufacturer who has many years experience in producing calipers. Easy way to success, right? Well if this experience is anything to go by, it is proof that unless the correct process is followed and many, many hours of R&D is put into a reproduction caliper, it will NEVER live up to the OE caliper! If we’re releasing any our new calipers for sale, rest assured it has been put through “the ringer”.
We share these stories with because we believe there is value in knowing how the parts you purchase off us came to be. Good or bad journeys, we all learn from the process and apply to the next project.
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